I mis-wrote, so I'll clarify: "if you code properly, you will have a site that degrades gracefully." I think it is funny that someone who really goes through the trouble of turning of javaScript in IE (and this has to be super rare) would expect that everything will work properly.
So, if you really want to go through the trouble of making sure your site works in all browsers, even with javaScript off:
Code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<!--[if lt IE 9]> <script src="http://html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script> <![endif]-->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="altReset.css" />
<style type="text/css">
header, article, footer, div{
width: 5em;
background-color: green;
border: 1px outset grey;
margin: 1em;
float: left;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<div>
<![endif]-->
<header>
<hgroup>
</h1>HELLO</h1>
<p>world</p>
</hgroup>
</header>
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
</div>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<div>
<![endif]-->
<article>
<hgroup>
</h1>HELLO</h1>
<p>world</p>
</hgroup>
</article>
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
</div>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<div>
<![endif]-->
<article>
<hgroup>
</h1>HELLO</h1>
<p>world</p>
</hgroup>
</article>
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
</div>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<div>
<![endif]-->
<article>
<hgroup>
</h1>HELLO</h1>
<p>world</p>
</hgroup>
</article>
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
</div>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<div>
<![endif]-->
<footer>
<hgroup>
</h1>HELLO</h1>
<p>world</p>
</hgroup>
</footer>
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
</div>
<![endif]-->
</body>
</html>
But there is an issue, and excuse me if the following sound ignorant because I don't know crap about back-end programming:
See all those <hgroups>? Those are needed if you want to use all <h1> and you don't want to break the DOM while doing so. Now, if your program is dependent on manipulating the DOM, then you are really up a crick.
This does not mean that learning HTML5 is a total waste. As I pointed out earlier, ie8 added support to <canvas> and they may add support for the other elements soon as well. If not, there are still many things that are offered with HTML5: local storage, geolocation, and of course new form attributes. The great thing about form attributes is that they degrade perfectly into ie7/8/9, but they are helpful to people with iPhones and screen readers.
diveIntoHTML5 goes into massive detail about all this stuff, and explains it better than I can.
